Dropouts and Graduation Rates

Beginning school year ending 2005, the Office of Accountability began calculating a four-year
dropout rate and changed the method of calculating the graduation rate. Dropouts are now calculated
by adding the dropout counts (under age 19) for the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades over the previous
four-year period, respectively. This sum was labeled “Legal Dropouts”. The “Legal Dropouts” are
then divided by the number of students graduating plus the “Legal Dropouts”. This gives a four-year
rate for a graduation class. Using this method of calculating the dropout rate, the dropout rate for
Tulsa County is 16.8% for the Graduation Class of 2005 and 17.3% for the Graduation Class of 2006.
The highest rates were seen for Tulsa Public School District (28.6%-2005, 28.9%-2006) followed by
Skiatook (21.1%-2005, 19.5%-2006). Table 38.

Beginning school year ending 2005, the Office of Accountability changed the method of calculating
the graduation rate. The Senior Graduation Rate divides current year graduates by current year
graduates plus dropouts for the 12th grade that same year. Using this method, the graduation rate for
SYE 2006 in Oklahoma is 97.2%, Tulsa Public School District (95.6%), Jenks (98.1%), and Union
(95.8%). Table 38.

It is interesting to note that for Graduating Class of 2006, Tulsa County’s ADM decreased by
27.2% from 9th to 12th grade. Of the students that entered 9th grade four years earlier, 72.2%
graduated, 16.7% dropped out and 11.1% of students in Tulsa County Public school districts
neither dropout out nor graduated. It is unknown what happened to these students. Table 44
Graduation Class of 2006
Examining the graduation class of 2006 using similar methods for calculating both the graduation rate and
dropout rate the following was found:
The 9th grade ADM of Tulsa County Public School District for the graduation class of 2006 was 8,286.2.
Of this number, 5,979 (72.2%) students graduated and 1,385 (16.7%) dropped out. The remainder of the
students 922.2 (11.1%) neither dropped out nor graduated. Of the 922.2 students that did not graduate or
dropout, 619.4 (67.2%) of them were in the Tulsa Public School District. Some of these students could
have transferred out of Tulsa County, transferred to private schools, died, been incarcerated, or been held
back in another grade and subsequently be counted in another graduation class. Since Oklahoma lacks
the capacity to track each individual student it is unknown what happens to each student. (Table 44)
Graduation Class of 2006, Number and Percent of Dropouts from the 9th to 12th grade are:
Berryhill
Bixby
Broken Arrow
Collinsville
Glenpool
Jenks
Liberty
Owasso
Sand Springs
Skiatook
Sperry
Tulsa
Union
Tulsa County
Number of
ADM in
Dropouts Over
9th Grade
4 Years
111.8
3
313.5
27
1,094.4
157
158.3
15
139.6
19
709.2
52
46.7
0
639.8
84
450.8
19
202.2
38
92.7
7
3,280.4
842
1,046.9
122
8,286.2
1,385
Number of
Graduates
104
279
909
146
119
615
37
530
342
153
76
1,819
850
5,979
Number
Neither Graduated
Nor Dropped Out
4.8
7.5
28.4
-2.7
1.6
42.2
9.7
25.8
89.8
11.2
9.7
619.4
74.9
922.2
Percent
Dropouts
2.7
8.6
14.3
9.5
13.6
7.3
0
13.1
4.2
18.8
7.5
25.7
11.7
16.7
Percent
Graduated
93.0
89.0
83.1
92.2
85.3
86.7
79.3
82.8
75.9
75.7
81.9
55.5
81.2
72.2
**Percent of dropouts for graduation class of 2005 is the number of dropouts divided by the 9 th grade ADM for the graduation
class of 2006 times 100.
Percent Neither
Graduated Nor
Dropped Out
4.3
2.4
2.6
-1.7
1.2
6.0
20.8
4.0
19.9
5.5
10.5
18.9
7.2
11.1